York and Hadrian's Wall

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Wow - it was a long day, but I think I've got the hang of this 'driving on the left side' thing. Justin sits next to me and repeats the mantra "left side...left side...left side" about every 30 seconds or so. I do okay, but every now and again when we go around a corner, and I see a car coming my way in the right hand lane, I instictively jerk the wheel. I'm in the proper land (left) but my brain tells me the guy is coming straight for me, because I'm used to being in that lane. I think I've developed a twitch.

Northumberland is beautiful! I'm glad we took this route. The roads are narrow and winding, with barely room for two cars. I've pretty much grinded the tread off the left (passenger) side tires, running them along the curb. It took a little while to get used to judging distances over there.

We stopped at the remains of a roman fort along Hadrian's Wall just after 5:00. The small visitors center was closed, but we hiked back to the fort and the wall. After hopping a fence or two, we walked (jogged a bit) along the side of the wall (top where needed to get past) for about 4 miles round trip. The wall is about 1800 years old, and still in fairly good condition. It runs the breadth of England, just below the Scotland border - about 84 miles in total. One can hike the entire trail, but most of it is pretty rustic and in its natural state. It's about five feet high and four feet wide - at least where we were (taller in some places).

After the hike, Justin had a little energy left, and asked me if sheep are faster than humans. You see, there were about a zillion sheep grazing about the wall. I told him to give it a shot, and so he chased them about the fields for a while. No, he never caught one, but I got some cool video. One funny shot where he was chasing a baby andturned to find the mother running right behind him. Kind of freaked him out.

We got to Carrutherstown, in Dumfrieshire Scotland around 8pm. We took alittle drive out to scoutthe area for tomorrow before going to bed. The nice thing about being so far north is that it doesnt realy get dark until almost 11pm - and the dawn comes in around 4am.

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